And I Thought Glee Meant Happy
by IzabellSageGubler713
Summary: Candice and Carter are new to Lima. Candice already hates it and Carter...well Carter only talks to Candice. Will Glee be the force to fix it? OR will Candice leave THAT up to Puck? Puck/OC I own nothing but Candice and Carter. Rated M for future chapters...and cursing. I do not own Glee nor do I claim to.
1. Chapter 1

The clock seemed to move slower the more I stared at it. I couldn't help staring at it; I check time, it's a nervous habit that I have developed over my high school life. The way I saw it, every second that passed was one less I had to spend in Lima. It wasn't so much the town I wanted to get away from as much as it was the people in it. Nothing ever seemed to happen outside of Lima, and if it did, I never heard of it. What I was hearing though, was information I never knew I didn't know about myself. If that makes any damn sense to anybody.

Example: I moved here because I got kicked out of my last school for taking a picture of my ass and plastering it all over the school.

That never happened. I don't even own a camera anymore to take a picture of my ass; my last one got dropped in a puddle by a stupid ex-friend of mine. Nor do I want to plaster it all over a school for people to see. Without thinking twice about it I let my head fall to my desk. The bang of the weight of my head hitting the table sounded through the class room shortly followed by, "Candice, are you okay?"

I lifted my head with a smile and looked to the front of the class. Mr. Schu was looking to me, he had stood up to (my guess) make sure I wasn't blacked out or anything, "Perfectly fine, Mr. Schu." I replied as my forehead slowly began to throb.

He furrowed his brow as if he had a hard time believing me as he slowly sat back down. I sighed and slouched back in my seat. A note landed on my desk in a semi perfect football shape. I looked over my shoulder as saw Sir Puckerman grinning.

He put the palms of his hands together and opened them slowly, imitation a book, as he mouthed, "Read it," to me.

I slapped my hand down on the note and unfolded it under my desk.

_Your ass looks good in them jeans._

I tried my best to hold back a smirk that Puck brought out so easily in me. He's been trying to get with me for a while now. Since I moved here to be exact. I've been turning him down nearly every day because I know his type. Puck is the type who always gets who he wants, when he wants. I'm just not that easy.

I'm annoyed at life right now. May I turn you down later?

_What's wrong?_

Lima. Not to mention the head ache that's trying to form. I'm debating ditching the rest of the day. You in?

_Can't; if I get caught I'll get expelled. My probation officer was sure to make that clear. Will you at least go to glee club?_

Well, I might as well stay now. I hate ditching alone.

_Good, that means I get to see dat ass some more._

I didn't get a chance to reply as the bell rang. Everyone jumped up at the noise, gathering their things and racing to the door. I took my time, knowing that if I raced out I would only get caught in a traffic jam. I stood up and stacked my things as a pair of arms wrapped around me, "Excuse me miss," the voice I knew as Puck's rang, "are your legs tired; cause they've been running through my mind all day." I sighed as a smile slowly grew across my face.

"How much dust was on the book you pulled that out of?" I asked as I turned to face him.

He took an arm from around my waist and re-slung he back pack over his shoulder, "You know I don't read." He smirked.

"Candice, can I talk to you?" Mr. Schu asked grabbing my attention.

I looked from Puck to Schu and back again; Puck raised an eyebrow and mouthed '_later' _to me before walking out of class. I gathered my things and walked over Mr. Schu's desk. He looked up to me as he stood, "Are you sure everything is okay?" He asked as we were eye level with each other.

I smiled weakly, "Yeah. Rumors are starting to bother me I guess." I sighed out.

"If you need to you could go to the counselor. She does help with this sort of thing." Mr. Schu said while staking his papers and his teacher's copy of our Spanish book.

"I think I can handle it, Sock." I replied. He smiled at the name I had given him.

"Alright, I'm sure glee practice will get your spirits up!" He exclaimed with a big smile as we walked out of the door. I returned the smile as we parted and made way to my locker.

I sighed as I made my way down the hall, "Candi!" I heard someone shout. I looked up to catch Puck's eye. He was leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets surrounded by a few other guys; he smirked and raised his brow. I smiled as he puckered his lips and made a kiss motion. I blushed and looked to the floor as I kept walking.

I made it to my locker with no damage done to me and a smile plastered on my face. Carter, my (twin) brother, looked at me as I opened my locker. He traded a few books from his arms to his locker as I caught his eye.

He raised an eyebrow. _What are you so happy about?_

I tightened my smile and traded books of my own. _Oh, nothing. _ I looked over my shoulder back at Puck, who looked from one of his friends to me and back to his friend with a renewed smile.

I turned back to my locker and closed it, to reveal a very dirty look from Carter. _No._

I couldn't help but get defensive to this. _I haven't._ I turned and began to walk away. He caught up with me in a few short strides.

"Lunch?" He asked as we made our way to the cafeteria, dropping the conversation of Puck completely.

"Sure! I have to drop off my music for Glee first. Wanna come with?" I asked as we stopped at the splitting point of the cafeteria and Glee.

"Uhhh, I think I'll just meet you in the cafeteria." Carter replied with a few slow nods.

I laughed, "Okay. Meet you there." I said as we parted ways.

* * *

**I know! I have a problem with starting stories and not finishing them or taking a while to update. But this one has been sitting in my flash drive for what feels like EVER and I wanted it to be out already. So...reviews for next chapter? - I hate to be that kind of updater, but it's the only way I get reviews sometimes. Lol. Much love!**


	2. Chapter 2

I dropped off my sheet music in the practice room, laying it on Mr. Schu's desk, and was now standing in the doorway to the cafeteria looking around for Carter. I was looking for long for I spotted Carter at a table closest to the windows waving for me. I smiled and walked over to the table sitting next to him. When I sat next to him I saw that he had already gotten his and my lunch, "Thank you, dude-man-bro."

"No problem, doll face." He replied with his best Jersey accent.

"Well look what we have here!" A voice echoed through the room from behind us.

_Shit…_ A hand came down hard on Carter's shoulder and we both turned around, "What do you want Cooper?" I asked glaring.

He smiled, his team mates standing behind him, "I just wanted to see how our very own ginger freaks were doing."

"I'm sorry, was that supposed to hurt? What are you going to do next; throw fruit loops at our heads?" I asked my eyes narrowing. Carter reached over and put a hand on my arm, it was his way of letting me know to stop while I was ahead.

"Such a tone; it's a shame, we brought you two gifts and everything!" He fakely exclaimed.

"I don't give two shi…" I got cut off by a wave of red that crashed into my face. It was cold and stung my eyes. I licked my lips, cherry.

All I could hear was laughter as I could feel Cooper put his head next to my ear, "Sorry it took so long. We do have practice and all." He whispered hatefully before walking away.

I tried my hardest to wipe the ice and syrup from my eyes and looked to Carter; he was also covered in a slushy. I tried to shake the ice off of my hands as I stood up. I could feel it dripping slowly down my back. There would be talk of this happening, but since we had been here a few months with nothing happening I just thought they forgot.

Someone grabbed my hand, "Come on." Mercedes and Tina pulled me away from the table. I looked over my shoulder to see Finn and Kurt doing the same for Carter. I followed them into the girl's rest room.

"This burns like hell." I said as I splashed my eyes with water.

"It goes away after a couple of minutes." Tina said as her and Mercedes tried to work ice out of my hair.

"Thanks for helping guys…"

"Girl, don't even. We got your back." I could see Mercedes smile in the mirror.

The burning in my eyes was already beginning to go away. I sighed and held onto the sides of the sink. Half the rumors that were going around were true. I did get expelled, but for me rage; not my ass. I've been doing my best to control it so far while we've been living here in Lima, but all twigs snap is you bend them enough. I blinked away the rest of the burn.

"I'll just take care of all of this when I get home." I said pulling a hair tie from my wrist and throwing my hair up into a messy, sticky ponytail.

"Do you want a different shirt? We keep extra..." Tina began.

"No, it's no big deal. Thanks again you guys." I replied, "But all I want is Cooper's head on a block." I said while walking out.

I began walking to the end of the hallway where the boy's rest room was so I could check on Carter. If people didn't stare at me before, they sure the hell were now.

"Candi, what the hell happened?" Puck asked stopping me.

"Cooper." I answered going around him.

I cracked the door to the boy's room, "I'm coming in! I hope everyone has their panties on!" I shouted as I pushed open the door. I rounded the corner of a stall and saw Kurt working a comb through Carter's hair and Finn trying to make conversation with him.

"Has your burning stopped?" Finn asked wetting down a brown paper towel and handing it to Carter.

"Uhm, yeah, thanks." Carter replied awkwardly taking the towel from Finn.

"Carter, I'm so sorry." I said walking over to him.

He smiled weakly. I didn't expect him to say anything about it. Somehow, it never failed, Carter always wound up sharing whatever trouble I got caught up in. Us being the new kids in town, we were going to be in for it for a while. Carter stayed silent as he wiped his face off; he probably wasn't going to talk about this until we got home. So my only option was to drop it for now.

"That's about all I can do for the slushy madness." Kurt said running his comb under some warm water.

"Come on. Let's go eat." I said grabbing his wrist, "Thanks, you guys." I said to Finn and Kurt, who smiled in return.

"See you in glee." Kurt called as Carter and I walked out and back to our spot at our table.

Carter and I weren't able to eat the lunch that we already had considering it was covered in slushy and had looked like the hockey team and gotten a hold of it afterwards, so I just bought us new. We ate with a few comments here and there about what was going on in our day, but we had to eat quickly from the time we wasted trying to get the slushy off of us, because in no time the bell had rang for us to go to our next class.

I made it to Glee right before the bell rang; thankfully Mr. Schu wasn't in class yet. I walked over and sat in my usual seat in the far back corner. When I had started Glee club, Puck usually sat basically right on top of Santana, but he slowly worked his way across the sea of chairs and started sitting next to me, every day. I set my things down by my chair and turned to face Puck; he was favoring one of his hands and staring straight in of the class, "Puck, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Ahh, nothing's wrong now. I just hurt my hand." He replied looking back and forth between me and the dry erase board. He didn't move much beyond that.

I furrowed my brow through confusion and grabbed his arm pulling it over to where I would see it. It was wrapped in gauze and slightly bloody. My eyes widened at the sight of it, "Nothing happened my ass! How did you do this?" I asked holding his arm by the wrist.

His brown eyes locked on mine as he smiled weakly and raised an eyebrow.

* * *

**Reviews? I'm sorry it took so long to get out. Things keep happening in my real life that make my stories hard to find time for or I get writer's block. Anyways here is the second one, hope you enjoy! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

My eyes went wide, "You didn't."

Puck tightened his smile and slowly nodded his head, "Cooper."

"You can't go around beating everyone who does something to me that you don't like!" I laughed loudly half way through my sentence.

His smile widened into a toothy grin, "Well, then," he said leaning in a little closer to me, "it looks like people are going to have to start treating you better." I could feel his breath on my cheek and tried my best to hold back a smile.

"Okay guys, sorry I'm late. But let's continue our lesson of the week with…Candice," Mr. Schu began class as he walked in a set his things down, "if you're up to it tell us, who are you!?" He shouted the last bit to remind those of us who haven't sung yet of our assignment.

I slowly broke my gaze with Puck and looked to the front of the class, sitting with my back to the chair, "Well, Mr. Schu," I started before licking my lips; it was that time of year where they got dry constantly, "it's been said that I'm a Bitch." I stood up and made my way to the floor as Santana hooted and a few of the guys made cat calls as I walked.

I faced my classmates as I took the floor. I gave Puck a grin and he returned it as the music started. **(Meredith Brooks – Bitch)**

_I hate the world today  
You're so good to me, I know but I can't change  
Tried to tell you, But you look at me like maybe  
I'm an angel underneath, Innocent and sweet_

**If Carter had been in glee with me, I probably would've been singing this part to him. He never auditioned for the fear of getting more crap than what we do now about going to this school. So instead I shoved my hands in my pockets and slowly walked over to Tina and Mercedes who smiled at me instantly. I crouched down and wrapped my arms around their shoulders.**

_Yesterday I cried, you must have been relieved to see the softer side  
I can understand how you'd be so confused  
I don't envy you  
I'm a little bit of everything all rolled into one_

**I stood back up and threw a fist to the air as I did my best to belt out the chorus and made my way back to the floor, pulling Tina and Mercedes with me. Some of the others took this as an invitation for them to join me, except for Puck, who stayed in his seat lightly smiling.**

_I'm a bitch, I'm a lover  
I'm a child, I'm a mother  
I'm a sinner, I'm a saint  
I do not feel ashamed  
I'm your hell, I'm your dream  
I'm nothing in between  
You know you wouldn't want it any other way_

_So take me as I am  
This may mean, you'll have to be a stronger man  
Rest assured that, when I start to make you nervous and I'm going to extremes  
Tomorrow I will change, and today won't mean a thing_

_I'm a bitch, I'm a lover  
I'm a child, I'm a mother  
I'm a sinner, I'm a saint  
I do not feel ashamed  
I'm your hell, I'm your dream  
I'm nothing in between  
You know you wouldn't want it any other way_

**I sang, dancing around with my gleemates, throwing looks over my shoulder to Puck every few lines, who still sat in his seat, tapping his foot to the beat of the music and watching me with a smile.**

_Just when you think, you got me figured out, the season's already changing  
I think it's cool; you do what you do  
And don't try to save me_

**I rushed over to Puck, grabbing him from his un-bandaged hand and pulled him to the floor. He laughed loudly as he snaked an arm around my waist and we swayed with the beat of the music, his chin resting on my shoulder, my arm laid on top of his on my waist.**

_I'm a bitch, I'm a lover  
I'm a child, I'm a mother  
I'm a sinner, I'm a saint  
I do not feel ashamed  
I'm your hell, I'm your dream  
I'm nothing in between  
You know you wouldn't want it any other way_

_I'm a bitch, I'm a tease  
I'm a goddess on my knees  
When you hurt, when you suffer  
I'm your angel undercover  
I've been numb, I'm revived  
Can't say I'm not alive  
You know I wouldn't want it any other way!_

Everyone began to cheer for my performance as I tried to speak over them, "EXCEPT," I got their attention, "I'm not a mother." They all laughed, but I honestly didn't care what exactly it was everyone got from the song. It is how I saw me in the song that mattered to me, thought I didn't expect anyone else to pick up on it. We all took our seats again as Mr. Schu began to tell everyone who would be performing tomorrow and how many more performances were left of the week. Nobody else had anything prepared to go after me, so we spent the remaining time in class as a free period.

"So what are you doing after school?" Puck asked for only me to hear. We were allowed to talk, but Puck knew I didn't like people to know what I was up to outside of school. I never have, it's one of the reason people started making up rumors and spreading them about. They could never find out anything about me, so they gave me a story.

"Probably hang around with Connor. I have a feeling I'm going to have a lot of apologizing to do when we get home." I replied remembering our cherry flavored shower we had gotten earlier.

"I never see you outside of school, not even at parties or anything." Puck stated.

It was true. I hardly ever went anywhere that wasn't with my family, I wasn't a very good people person; if Puck hadn't of made a failed pass on me, I probably wouldn't be talking to him right now, he was still looking for different ways to catch my eyes, sometimes it worked but there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to let him know that.

"I'm not the party type…" I made an excuse as I grabbed his wrist and looked over his hand again.

"You're Irish; you're the party type." He said with a light laugh in his voice. I laughed a short but loud outburst, covering my mouth when some of my gleemates turned to look at me. "Seriously, Candi," he caught my hand in his and ran his thumb over the back of my hand, "what do I gotta do?"

"A lot more than this," I replied with a smile and a wink as the bell rang to end this period.

The rest of my day went pretty smoothly, with finding a new sticky spot on me here and there, and I was able to hurry to my locker to meet Carter at our car. He was already there in the driver's seat waiting on me. He pulled out of the parking lot as I buckled myself in, "Carter, I'm sorry about earlier." I apologized.

He sighed and shook his head slightly, "Don't be, I heard people talking about it. Cooper was going to do it whether you were going to stand up to him or not. Let's just get home. I'm starving." He replied looking over to me with a slow smile growing across his face at the mention of a food possibility.

That's the Irish appetite for you.

* * *

Review please? I would love to know what you guys think so far. :) And I'm sorry that this chapter basically turned out to be a song, sometimes that will happen, but when it does, the **bold** parts in the song may be important, depending on whats going on. O.o


	4. Chapter 4

The original plan was to head home, but on the way Carter and I figured we had a few hours before Dad was to be home from the office. So we drove into the back area of Lima, deep into the wooded areas where the road turned to loose gravel. We pulled as far as we could to the side of the road, locked the car, and began to hike into the woods. In the first week we had moved here we had gone exploring through the town, with strict warning from Dad that I not get into trouble of any kind, and found this particular wooded space.

I held onto low tree branches for balance, hiking without a trail isn't my strongest point. Sticks snapped under the weight of my feet as I stomped the ground making sure that at least my footing wouldn't betray me. The seasons were in the middle of turning from spring to autumn; freshly colored leaves layered the ground and crunched as we walked. It felt like Carter was miles ahead of me, "Carter, wait up!" I laughed, pulling my foot up from a tangle of roots and sticks.

He automatically stopped in his tracks and glanced over his shoulder at me, "We're almost there!"

"You're seriously going to ditch me in the middle of the woods. Who knows what goes on out here?" I said as I caught up to him.

Carter let out a loud, but short laugh as he squatted down to the ground. The perk of Carter being the older brother of the twin situation were in, he's capable and willing to give a piggy back when necessary. I climbed onto his back, wrapping my arms around his neck, "Hold on, spider monkey." He mocked Twilight as he rose and began walking again.

It was my turn to laugh.

"As much as the people here suck," I said resting my head on my arm, "the weather is amazing." Nothing made me happier about it.

There had been a lot of places we had moved that weren't so Candice friendly. Los Angeles was too hot. Chicago was too cold. Lima, right here, right now was just right.

"Just wait til winter hits. Some teachers have already planned for it." Carter injected as we broke the barrier to the small clearing.

It was and awkward shaped clearing, almost like an ameba, chances are it was someone else's clearing before us. What appeared to be a fire pit was in the middle of it though there wasn't anywhere to sit around it when we first came here. Eventually, a severe wind storm had caused a dead tree to fall close by. We had brought out a chunk that was long enough for the both of us to sit on and dropped it by the pit. It was nifty for the cold day get aways, but what I can't stop myself from wondering was when the tree fell, did it make a noise?

Carter let me down from his back, pulled out a pocket knife he had brought from the car and began to look for a large stick, "You wanna tell me about Puck?" He asked as he picked one up only to reject it.

I smiled, "You wanna tell Dad how you don't want to be in his business?" I countered.

"Not in the slightest." He replied as he picked a suitable hunk of wood and sat down on the log we had moved.

Our Dad is an executive with the company he works for. He never let the chance to tell us how he worked his way up in the world slip by. He put more pressure on Carter than he did me, probably because Carter is the son, but he did drop hints often. I was sure he wanted both us of to follow into the business to be sure we would be okay. I already told Dad I wasn't very interested but would think about it, Carter on the other hand was a little intimidated.

"Funny how that works out…" said as I sat next to him.

"The situations are completely different." He said chipping away at the hunk of wood with his knife, "And you know I'll end up finding out either way." He shifted his eyes in my direction and back at the knife.

"Well, I already told you, nothing is happening between Puck and me." I replied. It was the truth and I'm sticking to it.

"But you want something to be between you." He said it with ease, with no feeling either way; it was just words to him.

It was so simple for him to say, but for me to even think about it made my brain want to shut down. I don't know what I want. I never know what I want, but I kinda know I want this conversation to switch gears, "What are you carving?" I asked resting my arms crossed on my knees.

"A stake; and I'm telling you now little girl," He fell into our heritage accent, "it's not a good idea to be mixed with Puck."

"I don't want to hear you talk about me getting mixed with anything." I forced an amused laugh.

"Then just stay away from him." He warned pointing the knife at me before going back to the stake.

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear. That's how we wound up here in the first place, remember?" I asked.

It wasn't so much the Carter believed the rumors of the last school so much as Dad. Though there was no hard evidence of anything they were saying, I took Dad uplifting us and moving us as his small lack of trust in me. I haven't thought about it much and I wanted to keep it that way.

"I remember, you just never know what the actual truth is." He replied shaving a sliver of wood off of the stick before spinning it around in the palm of his hand and throwing it point down at the ground. It stuck as he stood up, "Do you have any idea when Dad is supposed to be home?" He asked shaking the shavings from his clothes.

"Not a clue." I replied.

"Let's go home and order a pizza."

I nodded in agreement as I stood and we began our hike back to the car. The hike back to the car was worse than getting to the clearing. My footing slipped going up one of the hills; Carter grabbed onto my wrist and stopped me from slamming to the ground. We somehow managed to get back to the car with little mud on us, but still took our shoes off before getting in the car. It is the only time that Carter ever broke the law, driving with no shoes on, but it's easier than getting caked on mud out of the floor of the car.

* * *

**Sorry this took so long, and that this is a filler. I was trying to give a better idea of Carter, not sure if I did it or not. But, nonetheless, here it is. Reviews?**


	5. Chapter 5

Carter and I got home in no time, leaving our shoes in the entry way. Carter was on the phone ordering a pizza while I got the money from the jar we kept on top of the fridge. I pulled out the money, slapping it down on the island of the kitchen as Carter got off of the phone, "It should be here in a half hour." He said as he put his phone in his pocket.

"Awesome." I said, putting the jar back on top of the fridge.

We left the money on the counter top as was wandered into the living area. I walked up to the fire place. Dad had speakers hooked up with an ipod. I scrolled through the artist menu, searching for something to listen to. Carter looked over my shoulder, to stop me if he saw someone good. We decided on Jason Mraz; as I locked the ipod back into the doc, my hand knocked into the book end. The book at the very end wedged out and fell to the floor, opening to a random page.

It was an old photo album, my face twisted in disgust at the sight, "We should probably put this where it won't fall all the time." Carter bent down to pick it up.

"In te fire place is good." I spat, my own accent surprising me. Carter's head snapped to look at me over his shoulder. He glared, his eyes locking on mine, catching me in a cold strength. The glimmer he held in those green windows told me he had a tucked away concern for our Mom still. It was only natural, but I couldn't stop the poison in my words, "It's nothin' important."

He stood slowly, photo album in hand, and turned to face me, "So are you goin' ta try an' convince me tat never happened?" He asked, holding the album up to me, a photo extremely close to my face.

"No," I replied weakly, grabbing the album from his hand, and held it open at my waist, "jus'...not important." I rested my hand on the photo, my finger slid easily over the plastic that covered it.

It was a photo from my first dance recital. Dad had enrolled me in a class with kids my age after he found out that Grandma had gotten me into the fine arts of the world. The class and I had worked up to the big performance, but once it was time for us to go on, I found myself running off stage. It was my first case of stage fright and my only memory of our Mom being...well a Mom. She had rushed to me after seeing my run off stage and caught me running past the stage door. I couldn't control my breathing as she held me in a tight hug; she rubbed my back, whispering that it was okay that I was nervous. "It shows you care," She said as I pulled back from her, wiping my eyes, "now, you go out there and show everyone just how much you love to do this." She encouraged me, straightening out my pink tutu.

I sat with Carter on the couch, slowly flipping through the album. It had been ages since we had looked at this one, considering after Mom left we never added anything else to it. We just stated new ones, leaving this one incomplete. Most of the memories in the pictures I couldn't even place, but I guess if you try not remembering something for a while, after time the brain will just make it easier and take it from you. No one really talked about it either, mainly because we all know what happened, but the repercussions never came to conversation.

"I remember tis one," Carter pointed out a picture. All I knew about the picture was that it was taken on our fourth birthday. Other than that the whole day was gone to me.

The further we got into the album; I could feel the mood in the room shift. I looked to Carter from the corner of my eye and saw him trying his hardest not to break. His lips were pressed to a hard line and he was breathing heavy as his eyes scanned the pictures. His eyes stopped on one. I looked to the one he was looking at; it was taken around the time our Mom had left at one of Carter's soccer games. Carter and I were sitting on either side of her on the bleachers smiling, Dad standing behind the three of us smiling with his arms reaching around us in a big hug. Then there was our Mom, she sat with her hands in her lap, elbows tucked in tight. Her discomfort of the whole situation was plain on her face; she didn't want to be there. Near us, near Dad, she wanted out.

"Ace," I whispered looking to him, he didn't look at me, but shifted his head in my direction.

"Yeah, dollface?" He replied, hardly speaking above a whisper.

**STEPHEN'S POV**

I had gotten off of work earlier than I was originally supposed to; I had just walked through the door and set my things down in the entry way. I heard Jason Mraz playing from the living area, so I knew that Candice and Carter had already ordered out something to eat. Candice was into a dinner and show type of atmosphere; given I had the time I would take them both out to it more often.

I smiled as I followed the sound of 'I Won't Give Up'. My eyes met with a sight that stopped me in my tracks. Candice and Carter sat on the couch, not in their usual relaxed way. Carter's head rested on his sister's shoulder, she held him, a hand on the back of his head and the other on his back. His body shook when he gasped for a breath.

I wanted to say something, to ask what happened, but couldn't bring myself to say anything. They didn't usually tell me when anything was wrong, at school or otherwise. Somewhere along in time, they had started to bottle everything, but every bottle overflows.

Candice shifted her eyes and caught my gaze, her eyes glazed over with the threat of tears. She looked down to the couch at a spot behind Carter. I followed her actions and saw what the problem was. Our first family album; I sighed slowly and walked over to them. Carter raised his head as Candice moved over and I sat between my teens. With an arm around each of them they laid their heads on my shoulders.

Carter wrapped and arm around my back; Candice didn't do much but sit there. She would be trying to fight it. She was the more stubborn of the two. I guess she has me to thank for that though.

The doorbell rang causing them both to jump up, "I got it." Candice said as she quickly stood up, grabbed money off of the island and walked for the front door.

* * *

**Sorry this chapter took a bit to get out, but I would love to know what your thoughts are. :) **


End file.
